Page 58 of Nixon’s Promise

As Nixon stood in his childhood bedroom, he regretted following through with his father’s wishes. Wayne had instructed Nix to immediately clean the house out, either throwing away or donating all of its contents. At the time, Nix appreciated the clear instructions. Now that years had slid by and he’d had time to reconsider, the empty house had hit him hard.

The home he’d shared with his father felt empty—hell, it was empty, all of the warmth it had once provided seemed to have vanished with the furniture. It was stupid. Nix knew it wasn’t any of the material items that had made him feel safe and loved, but he still missed them.

It hadn’t taken more than a few hours to get the cobwebs dusted, the hardwood floors cleaned, and the walls wiped down. Zack and Nixon were in his living room when a door slammed shut, taking Nixon off guard. Nix reached for Zack and roughly yanked him behind him, shielding the kid with his body.

“Nix?”

“Shit. Sorry. Habit,” Nixon told him, mentally chastising himself for scaring him.

“Yo, Swagger!” a man yelled from outside.

Nix started for the door and pulled it open.

“Damn, brother, you warned me you lived in the middle of nowhere, but shiiit… this is nowhere.”

“Glad you found it. Come in,” Nixon offered.

Holden Stanford walked in and looked around. His gaze landed on Zack.

“I’m Holden,” he introduced himself.

“Zack,” the kid announced.

Holden’s eyes went back to Nixon, lifting a brow in a silent question. Nix answered, “My woman’s brother.”

“Woman?” Holden couldn’t mask his look of surprise.

After his divorce, Nixon hadn’t been exactly quiet about the fact he never wanted to be tied to another woman again. He also hadn’t steered clear from having a goodly amount of fun with them, either.

Nix merely shrugged, not wanting to have that particular conversation in front of Zack.

“You also mentioned the house was empty,” Holden noted, taking the hint and moving the conversation along. “Dude. This ain’t empty—this is bare.”

“I have some things, asshole,” Nix shot back.

“You have a couch and a TV.” Holden pointed out the obvious. “Hope you don’t invite your woman to this shithole.”

The retort was on the tip of Nix’s tongue, but he refrained from explaining to his friend his lack of furniture only meant that Nixon had to get creative. Memories of McKenna lying back on his kitchen counter flooded his mind. Her long sexy legs wrapping around his waist.

Holden cleared his throat and was smiling a knowing grin.

Asshole.

Zack’s phone rang, and when he pulled it out of his pocket, a wide smile played across his lips.

“Be back,” he muttered before answering the call. “Yo, Cassy.”

Holden chuckled as Zack strolled away with his phone to his ear. “I see you’re rubbin’ off on the kid. He’s almost got the same smooth attitude you get when one of your babes calls.”

“I don’t have babes, and please don’t repeat that shit in front of McKenna.”

“She jealous?” Holden’s eyes narrowed, remembering all the times Alison had bitched about other women looking at Nixon. Or God forbid, a waitress be friendly to him, she’d have an all out conniption.

“No. But we’re new and I don’t want to give her any reason to get insecure or find a reason to bolt.”

“She ugly?”

“Fuck no. She’s hot as fuck. Smart, too. Man, I don’t even want to tell you about how I found her under the hood of her POS Ford fixin’ a tensioner pulley and belt. Christ. I was ready to beg her to marry me, right then and there.”